The next Lecture will conclude the history of Joseph, and the book of Genesis, and bring down that of the world to its two thousand three hundred and ninth year, one thousand six hundred and ninety-five years before Christ.

footsteps of Abraham and Isaac his fathers, | naan, was a token and pledge to his family, to overtake and be joined to them in that that in due time they should return thither, world, where men are as the angels of God and enjoy lasting possession; the resurrecin heaven; and to see his faithful children, tion and ascension of Christ's glorious body, his Joseph in particular, gathered unto him, gives full security to all his spiritual seed, every one in his own order, their day of trial that "those who sleep in Jesus, God will also over, and their warfare accomplished? bring with him;"-"Christ the head first, What must it have been to all the ransomed afterwards they that are Christ's at his comof the Lord, to see their common Saviour re-ing." The possession, of which Jacob's burial turning on high, leading captivity captive, was the pledge, was itself partial and transitriumphing over principalities and powers? tory, was long ago forfeited, and has long If there be joy in heaven over one sinner ago expired; but the succession ensured by that repenteth, what must have been the joy the ascension of Christ, is "to an inheritance of that day, when an elect world, in the per- incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not son of their divine Head, took possession of away.' Egyptian art might keep together a throne eternal in the heavens? the dust of Jacob for awhile; but the power of God, through the grace that is in Christ, guards every fragment and shred of it even until now, and "will raise it up again at the last day.' The afflicted man Jacob saw the end of all his troubles in the friendly tomb; Jacob, the believer, the saint in bliss, sees no end to his joy, but a still beginning, neverending eternity. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." To me to live let it be Christ, and then to die it shall be gain. Let us be followers of them "who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.” "Be faithful unto death, and ye shall receive a crown of life." "The hour cometh, when all who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall live." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."*

Jacob, like his forefathers, died, and was buried, and saw corruption; but he whom God raised up died indeed, and was buried, but saw no corruption. Jacob could observe, be offended with, and reprove the faults of his children, but Christ has power to forgive sins, and to change a sinful nature. The day which Jacob saw afar off, is that which arose under Jesus in all its meridian splendour, and continues to shine unto this day. The body of Jacob, by the skill of physicians, was for awhile saved from putrefaction; the body of | Christ, by the almighty power of God, was preserved, so that not a bone of it was broken on the cross, not a particle of it lost and left in the grave. The corpse of the patriarch, deposited in the cave of Machpelah, in Ca

* Rev. xx. 6.

HISTORY OF JOSEPH.

LECTURE XXXV.

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land, unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.-GENESIS 1. 24-26.

THE events of a short and uncertain life upon earth, derive all their importance from the relation which they bear to a future and eternal state of existence. Remove the prospects of immortality, and what is left worthy

the attention and pursuit of man? What is reputation? A breath of empty air; honour, a bubble; riches, a bird eternally on the wing; youth, beauty, health, fading flowers of the spring; the splendour of kings, childish pa

geantry; a crown, a toy. That alone is va- | seph, not knowing who he was, and so fulluable which time cannot impair, nor mortality filled the dreams of his early youth, which destroy; that which, though the man die, con- had given them such mortal offence. With tinues to live and speak; that which, de-a meanness equal to their former haughtiness, spised or neglected of men, is of high esti- they now voluntarily prostrate themselves in mation in the sight of God. If in this life his presence, and humbly deprecate that only there were hope, the happiest of man- wrath which they had so unjustly provoked. kind were a wretched, dark, comfortless What a pitiable, what a contemptible figure being. But for the consolations of religion, a man makes, overtaken and reproved by his Jacob must have sunk under the accumulated own wickedness! weight of calamity upon calamity: and Joseph, destitute of a principle of grace in the heart, had fallen in the hour of temptation, or despaired in the day of adversity; had risen into pride when exalted to honour, or deviated into resentment and revenge when armed with power. But, directed and supported by this celestial guide, he descends into the pit undejected, undismayed; spurns with holy indignation the solicitations of il-lented, and anger must have turned to pity. licit desire; preserves moderation in the height of prosperity, and sinks the resentments of the injured man, in the meekness and gentleness of the affectionate brother. A character so near perfection seldom occurs; we have therefore been tempted to dwell upon it the longer, and now that we must part with it, we bid it farewell, with no little regret.

The last office in which we left Joseph employed, was the burial of his venerable parent. In this he at once acquitted a solemn obligation; fulfilled the law of humanity, gratitude, and filial duty; and acted faith in the covenant and promise of God given to his forefathers. He is never so much an Egyptian, as to forget he is an Israelite; but, engaged in the duties of a son of Israel, he remembers he was a naturalized Egyptian. Having deposited the sacred pledge in the cave of the field of Machpelah, he and his brethren, and all his retinue return into the land of Egypt.

A little mind would have enjoyed this triumph of acknowledged superiority, if it did not resort to retaliation. But a great soul like Joseph's gives only into emotions worthy of itself. Seeing his father's children thus humbled before him, he dissolves into tears. Had he been ever so much inclined to vengeance, adjured by the awful names of his father and his God, his heart must have re

But in truth, he had never harboured one thought of revenge, and the offenders possessed an infinitely better security in the generosity and compassion of their brother, than in the protection of their father's feeble arm, parental authority, or frail life. Being at no variance with them, entertaining no grudge, mark what pains he takes to reconcile them to themselves; "But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now, therefore, fear ye not: I will nourish ye and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them."

Such is the exalted triumph of true goodness. Not satisfied with merely bestowing forgiveness, it strives to close the wounds which guilt has made: it aims not only at bettering the external condition of the penitent, but also at meliorating his inward frame; it not only proclaims peace to the offender, but likewise generously studies the means of reTerror ever haunts the guilty conscience; storing him to peace with his own conand men, whether they be good or bad, are science. This is the glorious triumph of God apt to judge of others by themselves. The himself, who overcomes evil with good, turns brothers of Joseph considered the life of their enmity into love, and obliterates the foul father as the only bulwark betwixt them and traces of undutifulness and ingratitude, by their brother's anger. Knowing themselves painting over them the fairer, softer features to be criminal, they conclude he must be re- of filial tenderness and dutiful submission. And sentful; knowing he had the power, they in no one respect can human nature so nearsuppose he must needs have the inclination ly resemble the divine, as in pardoning transto punish them. O how guilt degrades, de- gression, in showing mercy, in bestowing bases the spirit of a man! In bad minds, how on the guilty outward and inward peace; and quick the transition from extreme to extreme! burying and effacing painful and mortifying How nearly allied to each other, víces seem- recollections in total and everlasting obliingly remote, contradictory, and opposite! vion. Thus Joseph comforted his brethren, These reflections are all strikingly exempli- and spake kindly unto them. This spirit a fied and illustrated in the conduct of Jacob's greater than Joseph, by precept, by example, sons. We see malice and cruelty passing and by the model which he prescribed for our into suspicion and timidity: insolence but a devotions, has recommended and enforced; single step removed from fawning, flattery, and thus, by habitually drinking into it, and submission; and bold defiance of Heaven" men shall at length become perfect, as changing in a moment into superstitious hor- their father in heaven is perfect."

ror. They had before done obeisance to Jo-[

Gen. 1. 20, 21.

At the death of his father, Joseph was that by entreaty and permission, which once fifty-six years old. The history of the re- he could have enjoyed by authority. His mainder, containing a period of fifty-four pious attention to the dead is now requited years more, shrinks into a few short sen- by the pious attention of the living. And tences. But they exhibit a beautiful and in- thus of all the debts contracted by us, none structive picture of a generous spirit, of is so certain of being repaid, as the last sogreat and growing domestic happiness, of a lemn offices of humanity. Here, we only capacious prophetic soul, and of a faithful, give and receive a little short credit; and obedient, and believing heart. He had the the day of our burial hastens on, with rapid satisfaction of living to see his posterity of wings, to bring the account to a balance. the fourth generation, by Ephraim his young- Thus lived, and thus died, Joseph the son er son, and of the third, by Manasseh his of Jacob. A man whom all nations and every first-born. He had the felicity of beholding description of mankind, have united to praise Israel greatly increased, and the promise of and admire. Whose character and fortunes God hastening to its accomplishment; re- the pen of inspiration has vouchsafed to designed to die in Egypt, but looking and long-lineate with singular accuracy, and with ing for a sepulchre in Canaan. Jacob's, a life uncommon strength of colouring. Who, in of almost uninterrupted misery, is lengthened out to the hundred and forty-seventh year; Joseph's, with the exception of a very few years, a scene of splendour, usefulness, and prosperity, is cut short at a hundred and ten. But the difference dwindles into mere nothing before Him, with whom "a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years." Grief has its cure, usefulness its period, glory its decay, and pride its desroyer in the grave. As his dying father held him engaged by a solemn oath not to bury him but in Canaan, so Joseph binds his posterity by a similar obligation to carry his remains, when opportunity offered, to the sacred spot where the sleeping dust of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob reposed. Whatever had been his power or possessions in Egypt, this is all he bequeaths to his children; his last, dying will, disposes of nothing but his bones. But it is not merely the natural desire of the man, to rest in death with his fathers; it is the zeal, piety, and wisdom of the believer, leaving to his family a solemn pledge of his dying confidence in the truth and faithfulness of God. Accordingly, the dead body of Joseph becomes no inconsiderable object in the history of Israel, from this time forward, to their final establishment in Canaan. With much pomp it was now embalmed, with much care it was preserved in their deepest distresses and affliction; in all their wanderings it accompanied them, and never, till they rested in the peaceable possession of We know the generation of Joseph the the land of promise, did it rest in the peace-son of Rachel, and the well beloved of Jaful tomb. cob-but 66 who shall declare the generation" of the well beloved Son of God," the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth?" Early, unambiguous prognos tics foretold the future greatness of Joseph. Thus the tongues of a thousand prophets; signs in heaven, and signs in earth; the disposition of angels singly, and of a multi tude of the heavenly host together, before and at his birth, conduct the babe of Bethlehem from the manger to the throne. Some allegorists, who inquire rather curiously than wisely, have carried the analogy so

But had the credit of Joseph declined before his death? Had Pharaoh died, and Egypt forgotten to be grateful, that no royal mandate is issued for a splendid public interment; that an affectionate nation accompanies not, with tears, the son, as they did the father, to his long home? Miserable would Joseph have been, had not his happiness rested on a surer foundation than the smile of kings, or the applause of a multitude. Who shall be vain of any thing, when such a man as Joseph must be content to obtain

every stage of life, in youth, in manhood, and even to old age, interests, instructs, and delights every reader of taste, virtue, and sensibility. Who, in adversity, preserved inflexible constancy; and, in elevation next to royalty, adorned his high station by unaffected simplicity, incorruptible integrity, native, unassuming dignity, fervent piety, invariable moderation, and uniform modesty and humility. Who, as a son, a brother, a servant, a father, a master, a ruler, is equally amiable and praiseworthy. Who, to the sagacity of the statesman, added the penetration of the prophet, the firmness of the believer, and the purity of the saint. Who, by the blessing of Providence, was saved through dangers the most threatening, to pity, to forgive, and to preserve those who meant to have destroyed him; and who, in a word, was miraculously raised up of God from an obscure station, to be an instrument of much temporal good to nations; to mature and execute the plans of eternal Wisdom, and to typify to a dark age, Him who is fairer than the children of men, and through whom all the blessings of nature, of providence, and of redemption are communicated to mankind. We cannot therefore, as Christians, conclude his history better, than by considering it somewhat more particularly, as a typical representation of the person, the character, the offices, and the wor of the Messiah.

faithful and just to Potiphar and to Pharaoh; Joseph in the form of a servant, and the bu siness and affairs of his master prospering in his hand, lead us directly to him of whom it is spoken in prophetic vision, "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high."* Joseph assaulted with temptation, resisting and overcoming, conducts us with our tempted Saviour to the top of the exceeding high mountain, to the pinnacle of the temple, and shows us all the fiery darts of the wicked one falling harmless on the ground, because striking on the shield of faith; and "the sword of the Spirit, the word of God," like lightning, penetrating and piercing the ar

far as to represent Joseph's coat of many colours, the distinguishing badge of his father's partial affection, as typical of the body prepared for Christ, "curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth." When imagination, unrestrained by reason, and unconducted by scripture, is set to work, any thing may be made to resemble any thing. But if the interests of true piety be promoted, we must give, as we need and expect, much allowance; and so long as a metaphor presumes not to pass for a text or an argument, let metaphorical language be examined with candour, and the bold flights of an honest heart be treated with tenderness and respect. While we thus plead indulgence for others, we are perhaps making an apolo-mour of the adversary. Joseph unjustly acgy that is necessary to ourselves; and far, very far from this place be the vanity of thinking that "surely we are the people, and that wisdom shall die with us.'

cused, condemned, and punished, without straining for an allusion, points to Jesus, "numbered with transgressors," charged with crimes which he never committed, and upon a trial, a mockery of all legal proceeding, condemned with the vilest of mankind to the death of a slave.

We remarked of Joseph, that in making his observations upon, and in giving the report of his brothers' conduct, a mixture of self-sufficiency, malevolence, and presump- But we see Joseph even in prison and distion might possibly insinuate itself; but in graced, preserving dignity, exercising usethe censure and reproof administered by the fulness, disclosing futurity to his fellow-pri Brother and Friend of mankind, we always soners, restoring the one to the presence discover unmixed benevolence and gentle- and favour of Pharaoh, leaving the other to ness; severity against the offence, without perish under the weight of the royal disacrimony towards the offender; slowness pleasure. Thus we see Jesus, from the to condemn, readiness to forgive; a disposi- exalted infamy of the cross, dispensing more tion to palliate and excuse the worst of than life and death, opening and shutting the crimes, instead of eagerness and zeal to de- gates of heaven, assuming to himself the tect, magnify, and expose the least. Jacob's right of disposing of seats in the paradise of affectionate embassy to his sons in the wil- God; carrying the penitent with him to the derness, by the mouth of his beloved Joseph, presence of his father and his God; leaving in all its circumstances, has already been the impenitent to die in his sins. But there noticed as exactly typical of the message is here this remarkable difference, Joseph borne from the compassionate Father of men, besought the chief butler to remember hiin, to his wandering exile children, by the Son hoping to owe his enlargement to the powerof his love. Who can think of Joseph fol- ful, compassionate, and grateful intercession lowing his brethren from place to place of that officer; but Jesus, as Lord of the with thoughts of peace, and meeting in re- worlds visible and invisible, as the sovereign turn with hatred and violence, without re- disposer of all things, by his own power exflecting the next moment on the words of alts his fellow-sufferer from the cross to a the evangelist," he came to his own, and throne above the skies. Behold Joseph transhis own received him not." "Not this man, lated from the dungeon to the palace, from but Barabbas." 66 Away with him, crucify the condition of a prisoner and a slave, to him, crucify him.” "O Jerusalem, Jeru- that of a mighty prince; and in that, behold salem, thou that killest the prophets, and Jesus emerging from the tomb, ascending stonest them which are sent unto thee, how above all height, exalted to the sovereign often would I have gathered thy children administration of all things in heaven and in together, even as a hen gathereth her chick- earth. "Ought not Christ to have suffered ens under her wings, and ye would not."* these things, and to enter into his glory?" Joseph was sold at the suggestion of Jur" It became Him, for whom are all things, dah to the Ishmaelites for a few pieces of silver. The counterpart of this forces itself upon our imagination. "The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men;" "mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" Joseph † Psalm xli. 9.

* Matt. xxiii. 37.

and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Joseph revealed to Pharaoh and to all Egypt what was the will of heaven concerning them for many years to come: thus Jesus revealed to a guilty, perishing world the will of God for their salvation, and made ↑ Luke xxiv. 26. Heb. ii. 10.

Isaiah lii. 13.